Edith Cavell

Edith Cavell (4 December 1865-12 October 1915) was a British nurse during World War I. She helped 200 Allied prisoners-of-war escape from German-occupied Belgium, but she also helped German soldiers; nevertheless, she was executed by the Germans for "espionage".

Biography
Edith Cavell was born in Swardeston, Norfolk, English on 4 December 1865, and she was educated at home, in Somerset, and in Brussels. In 1906, with Dr. Depage, she founded a school in Brussels to train nurses according to British techniques. She stayed in Brussels during World War I with the permission of the German authorities, nursing both Allied and German wounded. She also assisted British and French soldiers to escape to neutral Holland. When this was discovered, she was arrested for espionage, tried, and executed. She was regarded as a martyr in the Allied countries, and even the German emperor Wilhelm II, who was not usually noted for his political tact, recognized the execution to have been a major political mistake.